Anyone who has seen UFC on TV or Online will know what it is all about but those that haven’t lets have a quick run down. UFC is Ultimate fighting championship. A bit like Boxing + WWE – all the ham acting.
Basically two guys inside an octagon ring trying to smash the living daylights out of each other with hardly any rules limiting what they can do to one another.

UFC is one of the fastest growing sports today and as such you really would expect a console game to do it justice – and thankfully Yukes and THQ’s latest instalment is up to the high standards expected. Visually the game is great, character movements, fighting and knockouts all look realistic and on par with the likes of Fight Night and other similar games in this genre. Slow motion replays and camera angle changes also make for some impressive knockout replays. Certainly match what most gamers would expect from consoles these days

All the top UFC stars are included too, in each of the weight categories there is an array of fighters all with varying styles and techniques for you to choose from. Be that a specialist in boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, maui tai or jujitsu. The create a fighter mode also allows you to create and customise your own fighters although the ability to re-create realistic faces is quite limited.

Even better though is the Career mode which allows you to create your very own fighters and select exactly what kind of fighting style and attributes you want them to have – you then need to train your fighter and work your way up the ranks taking on the better fighters in a bid to be the best. You can then work out which areas to improve on and allocate training points to these areas.

The flaws to the game are pretty minor – in game loading screens between matches and menu options start to get quite annoying and after several fights you’ll notice commentary (which on the whole is pretty realistic) will repeat at parts. The create a fighter could do with more customisations for fighters appearances and tattoos etc and the character animations for when you win a fight could have done with a few more to avoid the same one being shown again and again.

The control system at first seems pretty complex – this is mostly down to the fact that unlike most fighting games where you stand and punch and kick UFC allows you to fight standing up, take your opponent down onto the mat and fight there or to and force them to submit. The controls for each of these become similar and you soon pick up the basics and learn from the tutorials and each fight. There is also various combinations of punches, kicks, throws, takedowns and submissions that when mastered can result in serious carnage for your opponent.

The game also features an online versus mode, take your favourite fighter and battle someone via Xbox live. Sadly the age old problem of ‘Lag’ creeps in here and you’ll find some opponents will drop out of matches after you beat them or connection problems will cause some fights to be pretty unplayable. Matches between friends with decent connections though should be problem free.

For anyone that likes UFC or games like the fight night series this really is an enjoyable and realistic fighting game that does the sport justice. Certainly well worth a play.